Lola's Secret
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4.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
At the Valley View Motel in South Australia's picturesque Clare Valley, 84-year-old Lola Quinlan is up to her usual mischief. She's sent her family away for Christmas and invited a number of mystery guests to come and stay. But who are all these people, and why aren't they spending the festive season with their own loved ones?
As the big day draws closer and Lola's personal family dramas threaten to unravel her plans, she discovers that at a special time of year, magic can happen in every family – especially your own.
A funny and sad and moving novel about the very meaning of life, Lola's Secret has touched the hearts of women the world over.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Australian author McInerney revisits the Quinlan family (first introduced in 2005's The Alphabet Sisters), this time focusing on the quirky matriarch: 84-year-old Lola. After ensuring that her son, Jim the proprietor of the South Australian motel that Lola calls home and his wife, Geraldine, go on a much needed vacation over Christmas, Lola secretly invites a disparate group of guests to stay at the motel free of charge. As the adventure approaches, readers learn that Lola is a favorite among friends and family, including her squabbling granddaughters Bett and Carrie, who prefer commiserating with their grandmother to confiding in Geraldine, a practice that triggers the latter's resentment. Lola also serves as referee and advice-giver at the thrift store where she works, whose "NASA control room" of computers she uses to keep in touch with great-granddaughter Ellen. Politics at the shop, family tensions, a rotating cast of characters, and the possibility of Lola locating her lost love keep this book jam-packed with plot lines, and though one gimmicky thread gets lost en route to the end, big personalities and believable conflicts keep the story engaging.
